Trump border wall threatens mountain that sits on New Mexico diocese's land

EarthBeat Weekly
Your weekly newsletter about faith and climate change

May 15, 2026

Workers have cut a gash, right, through the southern slope of Mount Cristo Rey, which straddles the border between Sunland Park, New Mexico, and Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, to build a new section of border wall, Saturday, March 7, 2026. (RNS/Corrie Boudreaux)

During the first Trump administration, persistent attempts to build a wall at the U.S.-Mexico border was a constant focus of media coverage and national attention.

But during President Donald Trump's second term, the wall largely has fallen out of the spotlight, amid a maelstrom of major news around government slashes, immigration crackdowns, war, rising prices and controversies surrounding Jeffrey Epstein.

This week, though, the wall was back in the headlines and with a Catholic (and environmental) angle.

On Monday, Aleja Hertzler-McCain reported for Religion News Service that the Catholic Diocese of Las Cruces, New Mexico, said it intends to fight the Trump administration's fast-moving attempts to seize its land through eminent domain to extend the southern border wall.

The land in question is at the base of Mount Cristo Rey, a mountain and pilgrimage site topped by a 29-foot-tall limestone statue of Jesus Christ that dates back to 1940. The diocese said the border wall would obstruct pilgrimage routes.

"The erection of a border wall through or along this holy site could irreparably damage its religious and cultural sanctity, obstruct pilgrimage routes, and transfer sacred space into a symbol of division," the Diocese of Las Cruces said in a legal filing May 8.

The diocese has accused any seizure of the land or construction on it as "a significant infringement on religious freedom and the rights of worship" and a violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

While the government's attempts to seize land owned by the Las Cruces Diocese garnered national attention this week — covered by The New York Times, USA Today, Newsweek, Axios, Bloomberg, among other news outlets — the story dates back further.

In June 2025, the Department of Homeland Security waived environmental and historical preservation laws that cleared the way for a border wall on Mount Cristo Rey, as Inside Climate News reported at the time.

EarthBeat republished on Thursday a story by Inside Climate News that looks deeper at the history of Mount Cristo Rey, viewed by local Catholics as a sacred site "where faith transcends borders," as Martha Pskowski reports.

Mount Cristo Rey sits where the land border between the U.S. and Mexico ends and the Rio Grande becomes the dividing line. For centuries called Paso del Norte — the northern pass — this point has been a crossroads for Indigenous peoples, Spanish colonizers and later settlers traveling west on the early transcontinental railroads.

A priest at the Catholic Church in nearby Smeltertown first proposed building a statue on the mountaintop in the 1930s. The mountain, previously known as Cerro de los Muleros, or Mule Driver's Mountain, was later renamed Mount Cristo Rey.

Today, it remains a pilgrimage site for thousands of people, who climb its slope each Good Friday as well as around the Feast of Christ the King ("Cristo Rey").

The mountain is also teeming with fossils, geological formations and wildlife, including serving as a crossing point for the Mexican gray wolf between the two countries.

"There is no accountability," Robert Ardovino, a local business owner, told Pskowski. "And the damage will be irreparable."

What else is new on EarthBeat:

Catholic groups stress efforts to combat hunger as Senate considers farm bill

by Kate Scanlon, OSV News

As the U.S. Senate prepares to consider a farm bill recently approved by the U.S. House, Catholic organizations together with the U.S. bishops sought to stress to lawmakers the importance of efforts to combat hunger, such as robust support for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, a major part of the nation's social safety net.

What's happening in other climate news:

The U.S. is forfeiting the clean-energy race to China —By David Uberti, Ed Ballard and Brian Spegele for the Wall Street Journal

Trump administration aims to roll back limits on toxic wastewater from coal-fired power plants —Marc Levy for the Associated Press

Watchdog groups urge Senate to investigate Samuel Alito over oil stock conflicts —Dharna Noor for the Guardian

New York plastics law advances amid debate over 'chemical recycling' —Lauren Dalban for Inside Climate News

Why this tribe is buying up hundreds of acres of farmland — and flooding it —John Ryan for National Public Radio

Trump administration cancels rule that made conservation a use of public lands —Matthew Brown for the Associated Press

Trump's gas tax holiday pitch faces early Capitol Hill headwinds —Pavan Acharya, Amelia Davidson and Meredith Lee Hill for Politico

They've got a plan to combat global warming (and also Russian tanks) —Avril Silva for The New York Times

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Brian Roewe
Environment Correspondent
National Catholic Reporter
broewe@ncronline.org